“Star Wars: Squadrons,” a new video game by EA (Electronic Arts), was released on Oct. 1, 2020. Its gameplay consists of high-speed space combat with Star Wars ships in a first-person view.

“Star Wars: Squadrons” is a must-buy for Star Wars fans who dream to pilot and fly an X-Wing, Tie-Fighter, or any other Star Wars starfighter. At first, players choose what side they want to be on. They can be part of either the New Republic or the Galactic Empire. Players can choose between different ship factions, as well. There are Fighter ships, Interceptor ships, Bomber ships, and Support ships. The player then goes through the tutorial, in which all the controls needed to play the game well are shown. The gameplay itself is very immersive. You pilot a starship, in the first-person view, while having control over almost everything you do. There are many different objectives in the game, from capturing a battleship to eliminating all enemy starships before they eliminate you.

The player has two different game modes: single-player and multiplayer. In the single-player campaign, you are part of both the Galactic Empire (The Sith) and the New Republic (The Jedi). You will be part of the Empire, where you are tasked with capturing a Rebel starship.

After that mission is completed, you will switch sides and become a part of the Rebels, where you have the mission of escaping from the Empire. The story is engaging since you get to see both sides of the war, and you get to find out about both sides’ backstory. In between missions, you get to talk to some either pilots you fly with, and you find out their story of why they are what they are. For example, in between a mission, you get to talk to Shen, a veteran pilot for the Empire, who tells you the story of how he was shot down and lost two vertebrae in a space fight against the New Republic. You also get to talk to Kierah Koovah, a pilot for the Rebels who talks about how she was shot down by a Tie Fighter and lost her arm by getting it crushed under rubble. Overall, the single-player campaign for this game is very extensive and has many interesting moments. The campaign takes approximately ten hours to finish, and it is filled to the brim with action and engaging dialogue.

The second mode available for “Star Wars: Squadrons” is multiplayer. In it, you can either play with/against your friends or with/against anonymous online people. The people you go up against in multiplayer are way better than the AI (artificial intelligence) bots you go up against in the campaign. A very helpful feature in multiplayer is the voice chat, so you and your teammates can talk to each other and collaborate on attacks. You can even go up against your friends to find out who the better pilot is. In my opinion, I think that multiplayer is better than the single-player campaign since the online players pose more of a challenge, and also because you can talk to each other via voice chat.

Overall, “Star Wars: Squadrons” is a really fast-paced game with amazing graphics and spectacular gameplay. The single-player campaign is good for starting the game off, while the multiplayer mode is for players who want a good challenge. If you plan on buying this game, it will be about $40, available on Steam, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, VR, and PC.